1 in 10 people have been scammed online, and there are even more people that there was an attempt to scam. More so, you are more likely to lose your money online than you are to be robbed on the next street. At least for a majority of people. But then there are no statistics for online dating scam.
There is hardly anything in the way people look for love. While others try to find their soulmates in clubs, others prefer the church, others streets, while others prefer the internet. Interestingly enough, in all of these places, people have been able to find people they are able to live with for the rest of their lives.
On the other hand, there are many people that have been left with broken hearts and empty bank accounts. Even though we may be optimistic that it will never happen to us, we need to understand certain ways that we can be scammed on dating sites. There are many people that have sold their properties to give the money away to these scammers, while others have lost their entire life savings running into millions.
Ways not to fall for online dating scam
1 Who is the other person?
The first way to know if you are being scammed on a dating site is to try to know the other person. Now you cannot do this by asking the person for the obvious reason. Instead, you can run a search on the name the person gives you as his name and see what comes up. The thing with this is that there are names that are shared by many people, hence what you need to do is to run an image search so that you can see if it is the name you are given. Next find out the location of the person and other details. If you get different locations and there is no information on such a person anywhere online, you may just be on your way to getting scammed.
2 Too good to be true?
When it is all too good to be true, what they say is that it is mostly not true. If the moment you meet someone and the person is everything a man or a woman wants in life, it is mostly a scammer at the other side. This is because let’s face it, there is no one that is completely perfect in every way. Another important thing to watch out for is if someone begins to claim relations with the high and mightiest in the society and people of influence. It’s a flag.
See Also: 15 Proven Reasons Why People May Fall In Love With You According To Science
Also, you may be a 60-year-old man and a 20-year-old model is claiming you are her world on a dating site or you may be a 60-year-old woman and a man in his 20s is claiming undying love. This is something you need to be careful of.
3 The English
One thing that most people ignore when they get scammed on dating sites is the language of those scamming them. When one claims to be born in the US and yet one’s language is all filled with many mistakes, there are many questions to ask. In addition, if one is claiming to be something and you have a chat with the person, you will be able to know whether that is true or not.
4. Time to meet?
If a suitor has been after you on a dating site and you are getting along well but there is a problem when it comes to meeting, you need to start asking questions. This is even more so when the person is claiming not to be living very far off, but when you try to meet you get excuses such as he or she is flying to another country, or there is an urgent meeting anytime you want to meet, or some accidents or things of the sort. If he or she at the other side is desperate not to meet you, something is wrong, trust me.
5. Another Location and time to meet?
If you are both in separate places, probably countries and the other person is extremely desperate to meet you, something again may be wrong, but not necessarily. Where you need to take a complete pause is when the person claims to want to visit but needs probably a few hundred bucks to fly over to meet you and is asking or suggesting that you help out.
6. Money talks?
If your Romeo at the other side or Juliet as the case may be, begins to emphasize money talks more than anything else, it could just be another trying to make you a victim of online dating scam. The next thing that will happen is that the scammer may tell you many stories and then ask you to loan him some money as he or she will pay you double of what he has collected or even more.
7. Age Difference
I know you will not think this very serious, but when there is a very big age difference between the two of you, with you being the one way older, the bells are supposed to start ringing. It doesn’t make any sense when someone 10 years younger than yourself, who has never met you, is all out there claiming to love you.
8. Every lie is a red flag
Trust me, but every single lie on the way is a red flag. This mostly depends on the gravity of the lie. When the lie is on location, it is one that you need to take extremely serious. If you are told by the other person that he or she has been away but you see that they are online, it is time to start suspecting.
9. Make sure you talk
It is not enough that you keep chatting with this person or keep exchanging emails, you need to try to talk with the person on phone or even Skype. If the person avoids a video call, something may be wrong, and if you speak on phone and you find that the accent is not according to the location such a person is claiming, or maybe the person is showing poor knowledge of where he claims he is from, you need to start asking yourself real questions.
Other things to look out for when talking is the way in which the person speaks, most especially the phrases. You can tell a lot about people when you hear them speak.
How to be Careful on dating sites
Also known as advanced fee fraud, online dating scams are very easy to spot once you decide to be very careful above everything else. Here are ways to be careful.
- Remember that it is not only men that scam people online, and although you may see the face of a woman, it is a man that may be controlling the account from the other side.
- Don’t be too desperate that you fail to be logical. Logic is everything.
- Once there is a mention of money, credit card details, inheritance, or any such kind of things that would suggest the exchange of money, you should be warier.
- Check any discrepancies most especially with emails and names. When the two don’t match, there is likely something wrong.
- Do not stop communicating on the dating site before you finally get to know the person. This is because most scammers will want you to leave any dating site as you keep communicating.
- Be careful when the other person is very young is contacting you when you have gone above 50, and are probably divorced or a widow or widower. They believe older people and people who have gone past the mid ages are vulnerable because they are desperate for love.
- When someone is showing off too much wealth, it may just be a con ready for another online dating scam. They show off pictures of mansions and exotic cars that they claim belong to them. That is how it all starts.
- Ask for updated pictures. You need to ask the other person to send more and more pictures and try running a search of all pictures sent.
- Don’t send out any money to anyone no matter for how long you have been chatting because these people can be as patient as the serpent. Giving out your credit card details is even worse. You will find out that most online dating sites would warn you about this. Take them serious.
- Trust your instincts. Nothing beats that
What to do when you are scammed
If you have given out your money or credit card details, it is very likely that your money is gone forever. Nevertheless, you can still do these things:
- Inform the dating site immediately.
- Call your bank to stop the use of your card if you have given its details.
- Report to your police authorities.
- File a Fraud Victim Statement which is also known as Extended Fraud Alert (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax).
See Also: Nigerian Dating Sites: All to Know About Finding Love Online
